Tuesday, June 26, 2012

"He estimated that at least 100,000 minors were victims of child prostitution and trafficking each year...."NBC exclusive: Matt Sandusky details alleged sex abuse by his father

By Michael Isikoff, NBC News

Jerry Sandusky’s adopted son Matt told police he was sexually molested by his father for years — and once fled in fear from the Sandusky home — during a secret police interview that took place in the middle of his father’s trial for child sex-abuse, according to a copy of the tape obtained by NBC News....

NBC News has exclusively obtained the 29-minute audiotape, which was recorded by police detectives on June 15, four days after the Jerry Sandusky trial began. At the time, the detectives were preparing Sandusky’s son to testify as a surprise prosecution witness at his father’s trial.

For years, Matt Sandusky had publicly stood by his father and even showed up on the first day of the trial, sitting with the rest of the Sandusky family. But after listening to the first day of testimony from a young man known in court documents as "Victim 4," Matt Sandusky contacted police and volunteered to testify on behalf of the prosecution. The prosecutors’ plan was to use Matt Sandusky as a rebuttal witness if Jerry Sandusky took the stand in his own defense.

It turned out to be a crucial turning point in the Sandusky trial. When Jerry Sandusky learned that his own adopted son was prepared to testify against him, it was a “complete shock," and it played a big role in his decision not to take the witness stand, according to one of his lawyers, Karl Rominger....

In his interview with police, Matt Sandusky was asked directly why he decided to change his previous denials of abuse and cooperate with police.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventy-nine teenagers held against their will and forced into prostitution were rescued at hotels, truck stops and storefronts in a three-day sweep of sex-trafficking rings across the United States, law enforcement officials said on Monday.

The FBI said 104 alleged pimps were arrested during sting operations in 57 U.S. cities including Atlanta, Sacramento, and Toledo, Ohio. The operation lasted between Thursday and Saturday and involved state and local authorities as well as the FBI....

One of the minors recovered in the sweep reported being involved in prostitution from the age of 11, according to Kevin Perkins, acting executive assistant director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch.

He said the cases were not "one-off" incidents, but evidence of "criminal enterprises" that lure minors in, often through social media, hold them against their will through threats to them or their families, and then traffic them through different U.S. cities.

Child prostitution is "a problem that happens in all kinds of American cities and it happens to American kids," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children....

He estimated that at least 100,000 minors were victims of child prostitution and trafficking each year but said assessments were hampered due to under-reporting and other data complications....